The invention relates to a telecommunications system.
In the digital communications, telecommunications and data processing industries, equipment racks are used to house and organize modules, each of which are used to manage incoming and outgoing and telecommunications and digital data as well as computer generated data. Collectively, the equipment racks along with the housed equipment are known as telecommunications systems. Generally, these telecommunications systems are found as a series of adjacent systems warehoused in service facilities. As such, the objective is to compact as much processing or functional capability within as small a space as possible. Ultimately, costs increase as the volume required to house a given amount of data processing functionality increases. Moreover, any increase in the distance required to transmit telecommunications or other data signals will result in a corresponding decrease in the bandwidth available to those signals. In other words, an objective in the telecommunications, digital communications and data processing industries is to secure an ever higher functional density.
Each telecommunications system is made up of a rack outlining a core bay into which a number of data processing modules are supported. While there exists different modules for different functional objectives, each module generally consists of a circuit board encased in a protective housing. The circuit board processes telecommunications data and other digital or computer data. As these circuit boards require power to operate, they ultimately convert some of that energy supplied into heat. However, the circuit boards must be kept within a certain temperature range to operate properly and, as such, an important consideration in telecommunications systems has been the ability to manage heat generated by these circuit boards in operation.
While heat generation in a telecommunications system was always an important factor considered in designing such systems, historically, in general it has tended to be the case, that the limiting factor in regards to functional density has been the ability in compact a desired density of data pressing electronics into a given space as opposed to the management of heat generated by the electronic in question. That is, it has tended to be the case that heat generation as a function of processing capability per unit volume was not historically a functional limiting concern.
Originally, heat generation was managed by simply orienting modules generally in a vertical column such that air heated by the modules could easily rise between modules convecting heat up and away from the telecommunications systems. This decision directed the industry standard that has defined the gross architecture of these systems. As technology has progressed, heat management has had to be facilitated by a forced air system wherein air was directed through vertical columns between vertically oriented modules and away from the telecommunications system.
In recent years, however, there has consistently been a the dramatic increase in functional density in regards to the reduction in space required for an amount of data process capability. At the same time, the power required to operate each module and the consequent heat generated has correspondingly increased in nearly as dramatic a fashion to the point where traditional vertically oriented or end-on-end oriented eletronics modules within a telecommunications systems have been or will soon be unable to realize the advantages of the functional densities now achievable. That is, given the current scale of the racks used, namely on the order of 7 feet in height, it has become difficult to maintain module temperatures within the required range using forced air cooling methods while the modules are vertically oriented along the height of the racks in an end-on-end series of columns. While alternatives have been proposed to better manage heat through such vertical columns of modules, these alternatives suffer significant drawbacks. For example, one alternative proposes the introduction of multiple air or coolant inlets and outlet along the length of the column. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to avoid co-mingling of heated coolant that has convected some heat away from downstream modules with introduced coolant at ambient or chilled temperatures. As such, the introduced coolant must serve the dual purpose of cooling already warmed coolant as well as further upstream modules.
A further alternative in the prior art proposes directing coolant across the service plane or front face of the telecommunications system, cooling the modules and exhausting the heated coolant out of the system through the rear plane of the system. This method of cooling, however, requires exhaust outlets through the backplane or midplane into which the electronics modules are removably secured and through which the electronics modules may receive or transmit data. The inclusion of such exhaust outlets in the backplane or midplane naturally uses up space that might otherwise be used for electronic circuitry or components thereby limiting the functional density of the system as a whole.
Ultimately, functionality for a given module and therefore for telecommunications systems has been or is soon expected to be limited by the ability of network or data processing providers to maintain each module within a required operating temperature range.
Further, vertical orientation of modules has resulted in a need to arrange what has become the industry standard for transporting telecommunications, digital communications or computer generated data into modules, namely, fibre optic cables, in such a way that they must be directed through at least two bend points in order to he routed away from a given telecommunications system to a cable management facility. This was not much of an issue, historically, when the space required for a set of electronic components to process a given amount of data was relatively larger than it is today and, as a result, the relative number of data transports into a module was small. However, with the ever increasing density of electronic functionality within a given volume resulting in the ability to handle ever increasing volumes of data, the number of transports or fibre-optic cables into a given telecommunications system has increased. As such, cable management in the telecommunications system has become cumbersome given the multi-bend routing required to direct cables out of the telecommunications system into a cable management facility.
Also, the bundling found in these prior art vertically oriented systems requires cabling from a given set of modules to be co-bundled in some cases before being transported out of the telecommunications system to a cable management facility. Cable maintenance often involved the tedious process of finding and separating specific cables or even fibres associated with a given modules out a bundle of multiple cable from various modules, all of which often had to be done remotely from the telecommunications system.
Also, telecommunications systems generally include electronics modules that dominate the signal processing in a telecommunications system, and switch modules, used to provide a method of communicating between electronics modules. In the telecommunications industry these electronics modules are known, for many applications, as access modules. As inferred above, traditional vertical electronics module orientation required an interface between the electronics and switch modules which included, for peripheral electronics modules, longer signal transports than needed for electronics modules that happened to line-up adjacent to a given switch module. The peripheral signal transports suffered reduced bandwidths, and, as such, reduced functionality.
The present invention deals with the problems noted above. In short it allows for the main processing modules or electronics modules to be reconnected to deal with these problem. Moreover, in an embodiment of the invention the basic general architecture that defines industry standard core bays in the digital communications and telecommunications industries may be utilized allowing an ease of conversion from telecommunications systems currently found in the telecommunications and digital communications industries.
Such reorientation of the electronics modules allows for a means of significantly improving heat management of electronics modules, cable management within a telecommunications system and data transfer between switch and electronics modules.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a telecommunications system. The telecommunications system comprises: (a) a module rack providing a core bay and defining a service plane and a rack interface plane, wherein the service plane is transverse to the rack interface plane and the core bay is in part bounded by the service plane and the rack interface plane; (b) a series of electronics modules each defining an electronics orientation plane, each of the electronics modules including two opposed cooling surfaces oriented substantially parallel to the electronics orientation plane, each electronics module being removably secured within the core bay, the series of electronics modules forming an array such that their electronics orientation planes are substantially perpendicular to both the rack interface plane and the service plane, the array defining a plurality of coolant stream passages extending across the cooling surfaces defined by said electronics modules, the coolant stream passages being implemented by and between adjacent modules of the array, with the coolant stream passages thus defined being parallel to one another and transverse to the rack interface plane and providing uniform cooling capacity; and (c) a coolant mover for moving a coolant through the coolant stream passages and across the rack interface plane thus convecting heat away from the cooling surfaces of the electronics modules.
A preferred embodiment of the invention is a telecommunications system comprising a module rack that defines a core bay, a service plane and a rack interface plane where the service plane is transverse to the rack interface plane. The core bay is in part bounded by the service plane and the rack interface plane. A second component of this preferred embodiment is a series of electronics modules each defining an electronics orientation plane where each of the modules includes two opposed cooling surfaces oriented substantially parallel to the electronics orientation plane. Each of the electronics modules is removably secured within the core bay. The series of the electronics modules forms an array such that their electronics orientation planes are substantially perpendicular to both the rack interface plane and the service plane. The array also defines at least one coolant stream passage across each cooling surface, with the coolant stream passages running parallel to one another and transverse to the rack interface plane. The third component of this embodiment of the telecommunications system is a coolant movement means for moving a coolant through the coolant stream passages and across the rack interface plane. As such, the coolant convects heat away from the cooling surfaces of electronics modules. This embodiment provides a more efficient and effective means of moving heat from the electronics modules than found in the prior art as it, amongst other things, shortens the distance over which the inlet coolant is required to travel to cool the same functional capacity.
A further embodiment of the telecommunications system orients the modules horizontally thus utilizing the industry standard for core bays found in the digital communications and telecommunications industries. As such, conversion to telecommunications systems as taught, should be relatively straightforward and inexpensive. Moreover, the utilization of the basic architecture of telecommunications systems currently being used will help to facilitate future upgrades in regards to the cooling system utilized. By placing an adjunct bay facilitating the cooling means immediately proximate the core bay, as taught in one embodiment of the invention, it will be easier to remove and upgrade these cooling bays. Finally, utilizing this architecture also provides for a easier method of routing fibre optics cables away from the core bay and electronics module to a cable management facility.
A further embodiment of the telecommunications system ensures that the coolant provided to the modules is of substantially equal temperature entering the coolant stream passages.
A further embodiment of the telecommunications system provides for a adjunct bay adjacent to the core bay to house the coolant movement means. As such, each telecommunications system is accompanied by an independent coolant means that is easily serviced and easily upgradeable and provides greater redundancy to the cooling system that a central unit may lack.
A further embodiment of the telecommunications system provides for an air mover as the coolant movement means.
A further embodiment of the telecommunications system provides additionally for a midplane structure that defines a frontal and rear face where the midplane structure is secured in the core bay such that the frontal face is oriented towards and is parallel to the service plane. It further includes at least one switch module where the switch module is secured in the core bay transverse to the electronics orientation planes defined by the electronics module. The switch module is also parallel to the interface plane. The switch module is, moreover, in communication with the electronics modules through the midplane structure. This allows for the switch modules to be placed adjacent to a series of electronics modules across the midplane structure, thereby, increasing the overall bandwidth available between the switch and electronics modules.
A further embodiment of the telecommunications system further includes a cable transport abutting the module rack where the cable transport is adapted to direct a series of data carrying cables from the electronics modules to a cable management facility.
Still a further embodiment of the telecommunications system allows for a slack storage unit positioned between the cable transport and module rack that includes a series of rows corresponding to each of the electronics modules. The series of rows extend from the module rack to the cable transport and house bundles of cable and a service area for cables. The slack storage unit directs the cables from the electronics modules through to the cable transports, where the cable transport directs the cable to a cable management facility.
A further embodiment of the telecommunications system includes a telecommunications system that comprises the module rack and electronics modules considered in the first embodiment but includes a coolant movement means that moves a coolant through the coolant stream passages and across the rack interface plane thus convecting heat away from the cooling surfaces and the electronics modules. This embodiment allows for alternatives to air cooling for the modules and, with a further inclusion of the adjunct bay, a place to house the coolant movement system.